"TWILIGHT!!!"
The young alicorn Princess immediately bolted upright in her bed, scouring the room for the one who had spoken to her. Within moments, she found that it was Spike, who now charged into her room and looking, for the most part, out of breath. She threw back her covers and leapt out of the bed, galloping to her young assistant.
"Spike?! What is it?"
Taking a moment to catch his breath, the dragon turned, pointing outside.
"Out there! In...in the town!"
Twilight didn't wait for him to finish, and as she flared her wings out and gave an almighty flap, she bore a look of determination. As she flew as fast as possible through the hallways of her palace, she ducked and darted around every corner, until at last, she emerged outdoors. It didn't take her long after that to reach the centre of town, where it seemed like quite a crowd had gathered. However, as she landed, those ponies made way for her, and she was finally able to see what it was that was causing so much commotion. For there, right in the centre of the town square, was a white pedestal, reaching about as high as her shoulder. And upon it? A bright red button. Twilight raised her eyebrow at the thing, taking a cautious step closer
"Did anypony see who put this here?" she asked to nopony in particular.
There was a plethora of shaking heads to this, to which Twilight let out a deep sigh. But as she drew closer to the mystery object, her attention was then diverted to a loud and familiar voice.
"Twilight!"
Turning, the Princess saw all of her friends charging close to her, making their way past the crowd as they too locked their eyes on the button.
"What in the hay is that?!" Applejack asked.
Looking back to it, Twilight shook her head.
"I don't know. Apparently, it just...turned up."
Moving towards it herself, Rarity scratched her chin slightly.
"I don't suppose...it's worth pushing it?"
Twilight glanced to her and frowned.
"We can't! We have no idea who made it, who put it here or even what it does!"
Timidly, Fluttershy added her own voice to things.
"Um...maybe it will do something good?"
Rainbow let out a cackle to that.
"Good?! Flutters, nopony is gonna put some big mysterious button in the middle of town if something good is gonna happen!"
Looking to it, the cyan pegasus scowled.
"No! I bet this is some trick by one of our enemies! Leave this thing here, have some curious and innocent pony walk closer to press it and then bam! Explosions everywhere!"
Naturally, such a suggestion earned more than a few gasps from the crowd, as well as from Rainbow's friends. Twilight, though somewhat more sceptical of her suggestions, nevertheless gave a grave-looking nod to it.
"Whatever the case, we need to take proper precautions. So..."
Without finishing, Twilight lit up her horn, and after a brief flash of light, it now appeared as if she had conjured up something entirely new around the button. It was a small fence, forming a neat square around the pedestal, and upon every side of the thing was a hanging sign that read "do not push". Twilight, for her part, seemed rather pleased by this.
"There we go!"
But Rainbow, unfortunately, was not so thrilled.
"Are you kidding me?! You can't go telling ponies to not do stuff like that!"
Looking to her, Twilight frowned.
"Why not?"
Rainbow slapped her forehead before answering.
"Because telling ponies to not do something is just gonna make them want to do it!"
Raising a hoof, she pointed to the side.
"Just look!"
Looking to where her friend was pointing, Twilight saw that Pinkie, rather bizarrely, was now walking towards the button. Her face was in a trance-like state, and she was moving on her hind-legs only, with her forelegs stretched out before her, giving the overall impression of a shambling zombie.
"Must...push...button...must...push...button..."
Letting out a groan of annoyance, Twilight addressed her friend.
"Pinkie!"
Shaking herself out of this state, Pinkie looked to her with slight guilt.
"Sorry, Twilight. Don't know what came over me there."
But, moments later, she pointed to the button in an accusing manner.
"But can you blame me?! It's a button! You've got to push a button! That's what buttons are for!"
Twilight rolled her eyes.
"I'm know, Pinkie. But until we know for certain what's going on here, we need to be careful! So for now, no pushing the button!"
There was a round of agreeing nods amongst all of the ponies, which Twilight was rather pleased with. All, that is, except for Pinkie, who gave a more serious look than most would have thought possible before speaking upon with determination.
"I'm sorry, Twilight, but this will not do! This button is here for a reason! It is meant to be pushed! That is it's purpose! It's raison d'etre!"
Twilight looked to her with confusion.
"Um...what's a...raison d'etre?"
Pinkie shrugged her shoulders.
"Dunno. I think it's a fruit or something."
In an instant, she regained her earlier determination.
"But that's beside the point! What matters is that this button must fulfil its destiny! The story must reach its conclusion! For who are we to stand in the way of such things?"
Looking to her other friends, Twilight was, naturally, rather unsure about all of this.
"When did...when did Pinkie start becoming so philosophical?"
While many simply shrugged their shoulders, Rarity was the only one to reply.
"With Pinkie? At this point I'd say it would be stranger if she didn't go off on a tangent like this."
Twilight couldn't really argue with that, and turned to her other friend, just in time to see, to her horror, that the party mare was now leaping over the fence and towards the button.
"Pinkie! Noooooooooooooo!"
But, it was too late, as Pinkie's hoof made contact with the thing, pressing it down hard. Twilight watched, agog at what had transpired, while every other pony ducked down, as if ready for some explosion. A moment passed, then another, and another, and nothing happened. Slowly, all of the ponies started getting up, looking around to see if anything wrong was occurring. When they were sure that things were perfectly normal, they looked to Twilight with confusion. However, Twilight herself was just as nonplussed as they were, and simply looked to Pinkie with uncertainty.
"Pinkie? Is...is everything okay?"
The party mare backed away from the button, looking, of all things, disappointed, complete with drooping ears.
"Huh. I was kinda hoping for something more than this."
But, as if the universe itself had heard her, everything went dark, creating some kind of strange nether-space, and only Twilight and her friends were left. Ponyville, the other ponies in the square, even the sky, all of it was gone. As one would expect, this caused quite a bit of concern from those remaining.
"Wha...what the heck's going on?!" Rainbow asked.
Pinkie looked around herself, before then replying.
"Oooooooh! Yeah...my bad."
Twilight's head snapped in her direction.
"What?! What is it?!"
Pinkie giggled nervously and scratched the back of her head.
"Well...I kinda...switched it off."
Glancing to her friends with confusion, Twilight then looked back to Pinkie and was, understandably, less than happy with that explanation.
"Swi...switched what off?"
Pinkie thought long and hard about that, before just coming out and saying it.
"Um...everything. The world, the universe. I kinda...switched it all of."
Twilight stared at her, disbelief plastered all over her face, and as she glanced from Pinkie to the button and back again, she said perhaps the only thing one could say under the circumstance.
"Can...can you turn it back on?"
The party mare looked back to the button herself, shrugging her shoulders.
"Dunno. Let's see!"
And so, before anypony could stop her, she pushed the button once more. Instantly, everything went back to normal. The town, the other ponies, it was all back where it had been before. Twilight, of course, let out a sigh of relief over this.
"That's better!"
Walking beside her, Rarity kept her eyes on the button as she spoke.
"So...just so I have this right...somepony left a button that switched off the entire universe?!"
Twilight narrowed her eyes as she nodded.
"Seems that way."
The fashionista looked to her with clearly no idea of how to process all of this.
"But...why?!"
Scowling, Twilight answered.
"Oh...I think I know."
Tearing his home apart with every passing moment, Discord looked about as upset as one would expect when struggling to find something.
"Where is it?! Where is it?!"
Stopping for the moment, the spirit of chaos let out a groan.
"Ugh! Snapping my fingers in my sleep again. How embarrassing."
Glancing around, he began to wear an uncharacteristic look of concern.
"Hmmm...I do hope it didn't land anywhere...inconvenient."
But, he shook himself out of that train of thought, letting out a chuckle.
"Pfft! What are the chances of that happening?"
Then he paused, taking in his own words.
"Oh, right...forgot what world I was talking about here."
"But...but...why would Discord have a switch-off-the-world button?" Rarity asked.
Twilight sighed.
"Because it's Discord. Why wouldn't he have one?"
The alabaster unicorn nodded, but then gained a curious expression.
"But...why weren't we switched off along with everything else?"
Twilight opened her mouth to speak, only to stop when Fluttershy began to speak instead.
"Well...I've been trying to get him to make his chaotic inventions be a little more...friendly?"
Everypony looked to her with a raised eyebrow.
"So...by "more friendly", he just decides to make something that ends everything except his closest friends?" Twilight asked.
Fluttershy considered that.
"I'll...have another talk with him."
